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Published: March 4th 2007
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I´m not much of a beach person really, but the island of Santa Catarina was a good place to relax for a few days. Much of the island is heavily built up, but I was staying in a blissfully peaceful little fishing village called Amacao. There is not much in Amacao apart from a small church, a few cafés, and lots of boats. Things got quite lively at night, though, with local samba bands drumming away incessantly.
You don´t have to be in Brazil long before you realise what a lively country this is. It´s a bit of a cliché, but the Brazilians really do seem to love life. My impressions of them are that they are relaxed, open, friendly people. And from what little of the country I´ve seen, it´s blessed with great natural beauty.
My Portuguese leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, it is barely existent at all. This hasn´t proved to be too much of a problem, but the Brazilians do love to chat. On occasions I have ordered some food, thinking the transaction would prove to be straightforward, only for a barrage of questions to come my way. I think I´ve mastered the
facial expression which says "I haven´t the faintest idea what you´re saying, please just give me my food". One way of avoiding this is by going to one of the self-service buffet places where you pay by the kilo. They are common in Brazil - basically you pile up your plate with food and then the weight dictates what you pay. Pretty cheap if you like rice. The Brazilians also love their fruit juices - the towns have lots of bars dedicated to all kinds of yummy juices, which can be a god-send in this heat. The national drink, however, is the cairpirinha. The cairpirinha is undoubtedly the deadliest drink I've ever had the fortune to encounter - it is made from a potent sugarcane liqueur called cachaca (a kind of rum), with lots of sugar and lime added. Drink it at your peril.
While in Amacao I took a boat to a small island called Campeche. The island boasts a decent beach but the weather wasn´t great when I was there. I decided to go for a walk in the island's rainforest but I was rudely interrupted by a marshal guy who ordered me out of the forest.
He explained that I could only trek with a guide and that unfortunately due to the ¨unfavourable conditions¨ there would be no further guided walk that day. So, I was sent packing back to the soggy beach, where I sat around waiting for a boat back. By the time I could get a boat, the weather had turned really bad. It ended up being the roughest boat ride I´ve ever had. It was only a little fishing vessel and the huge waves made it feel like being on a rollercoaster. Wave after wave crashed over the boat, leaving me absolutely wet through. It was actually kind of fun.
After leaving Florianopolis/Santa Catarina, I moved on north to the town of Paraty (pronounced Para-chi and also spelt Parati, confusingly). Paraty is touristy but for a good reason - it is a lovely colonial town with heaps of character. As I had been tipped off about somewhere even better close by, I stayed just the one night in Paraty before heading off to Trindade, a small village squashed in between the rainforest and the beach. I stayed in a hostel fabulously located in the forest. The insects were the only nuisance,
in particular the biting ants - one bit me so hard that it had me howling.
Getting my laundry done during my travels has been mostly a straightforward affair (i.e. getting a laundry place to do it for me!), but in Trindade it was a nightmare. The lady at the hostel gave me directions for a laundry place, which were inaccurate to say the least. I asked person after person in Trindade´s main street with each person giving me a different answer... one person pointed me in one direction, another person directed me the other way, and another was even adamant that I would have to go to Paraty to get my laundry done. After absolutely ages walking around with my smelly bag, which was surely getting smellier by the minute, I finally found it! Eureka! But then - hold on, it´s shut! Doh. I had to go all the way back to my hostel in the forest with my bag, feeling grumpy. Returning a few hours later with my bag, the laundry place was open and I was relieved to get rid of said smelly bag. I was assured that my laundry would be ready by 6pm the
next day in time for my departure from Trindade, but oh no it wasn´t. They couldn´t even find my clothes! Cue a frantic hunt for my clothes, finally resulting in me finding them in one of the driers. They were still very wet and it was not until another few hours when I was finally able to retrieve my clean clothes. I know you probably don´t want to hear about my laundry ordeals (is anyone reading this?) but this particular episode was so drawn out that it needs to be mentioned.
The area around Trindade reminded me a lot of Cape Tribulation in Australia, where the rainforest also meets the sea. I went on a hike in the forest with 3 girls from the hostel, which was fun. After a while 2 of the girls turned back, leaving me and the Irish girl to continue onwards. This proved to be a mistake, as the 2 of us managed to get hopelessly lost for about half an hour or so. Yes, I know this isn´t the first time I´ve got lost on my travels - far from it - but I swear it wasn´t my fault this time.
From
Trindade I returned to Paraty to catch a bus on to Rio de Janeiro, in time for the famous carnival. Let the partying begin...
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Cynthia
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Happy Birthday
Hi Stu Happy b-day! Cynth